Bright-dark soliton complexes in spinor Bose-Einstein condensates

We consider vector solitons of mixed bright-dark types in quasi-one-dimensional spinor (F=1) Bose-Einstein condensates. Using a multiscale expansion technique, we reduce the corresponding nonintegrable system of three coupled Gross-Pitaevskii equations (GPEs) to an integrable Yajima-Oikawa system. In this way, we obtain approximate solutions for small-amplitude vector solitons of dark-dark-bright and bright-bright-dark types, in terms of the m_F=+1,−1,0 spinor components, respectively. By means of numerical simulations of the full GPE system, we demonstrate that these states indeed feature soliton properties, i.e., they propagate undistorted and undergo quasielastic collisions. It is also shown that in the presence of a parabolic trap the bright component(s) is (are) guided by the dark one(s) and, as a result, the small-amplitude vector soliton as a whole performs quasiharmonic oscillations. The oscillation frequency is found as a function of the spin-dependent interaction strength for both small-amplitude and large-amplitude solitons.